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They Stooge to Conga
They Stooge to Conga is the 67th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959. Its title is a parody of the eighteenth-century play She Stoops to Conquer. Plot The Stooges are repairmen fixing the doorbell in a large house which is the secret headquarters of some Nazi spies, headed by the ruthless Hans (Vernon Dent). They manage to ruin most of the house while working on the wiring and then subdue the spies and sink an enemy submarine by remote control. Violence They Stooge to Conga has been consistently ranked as the most violent Stooge film of the Curly era. In its brief 15½ minutes, Moe manages to get a climbing spike thrust into his ear, scalp, and eye. Plus, he is lucky enough to be pulled through drywall, with a wooden pillar landing on his neck (this was not intentional, as the pillar was real wood). Curly gets his share of abuse, via electrocution, falling off a telephone pole, severe nose twisting and getting singed via an acetylene torch. As a result, this short was at one time not shown on regular television. Interestingly, though Columbia short subject head/director Jules White was known for the usage of excessive violence in his films, They Stooge To Conga was directed by Del Lord. "We had trouble pulling Moe all the way through the wall," White later recalled. "Since Moe was a full grown man, we weakened the wall and the wood inside and then replastered the wall." Notable violent gags *When the trio first enter the house, Moe and Larry try to enter the house simultaneously. They are wedged in the doorway, and get thrusted out when Curly comes up from behind with the point of an anvil as a gouge. *When Moe is pulled through the wall by Larry and Curly, an actual 2x4 made of solid wood crashed onto Moe's neck. *When Moe twists Curly's nose with a tool, he uses a grinding wheel to file it back into shape. *As Moe and Larry assist Curly up a telephone pole, Curly accidentally impales Moe in his scalp, eye and ear with a climbing spike on the bottom of his shoe. *When Curly gets zapped via several telephone pole wires, he loses his grip and falls to the sidewalk, landing on Moe and Larry below. *While Curly is "charged like a battery," Moe places a light bulb in Curly's ear, which lights up. To short him out, Larry places a screwdriver in Curly's opposite ear, bursting the light bulb. *As Curly is sliding on electrical wires, he gets a shock, which pushes him through an open window. *As the Nazi spies' cook (Dudley Dickerson) is talking on the phone, the phone explodes in his face due to Curly's manipulating the electrical wires. The startled cook then backs away from the phone, right into an open waffle iron. The iron closes on the cook's buttocks, leading the cook to think he is being attacked by someone. *When Moe takes a hammer, he hits Larry from behind, then thrusts it into Curly's mouth. Curly, in turn, bonks Moe with his own hammer 20 times in rapid succession. *When Curly is halfway up the telephone pole, Moe burns him with a flame to get him all the way up. *When Curly is pulling a wire out of a wall, he pulls out a ringing phone. He answers it, says "This line is busy" and throws it away, hitting Moe in the head. Moe throws it back in retaliation, hitting Curly in the head, satisfying Moe and startling Curly. Recycled sequences *The doorbell repair segment would be reworked during the Shemp era in Listen, Judge. *The footage of the submarine jumping out of the water was recycled from Three Little Sew and Sews. *A similar gag was used in the 2012 film, where Larry is wearing a sandwich board. References *Howard Maurer, Joan; Jeff Lenburg, Greg Lenburg (1982). The Three Stooges Scrapbook. Citadel Press. pp. 244. ISBN 0-8065-0946-5. *Solomon, Jon (2002). The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion. Comedy III Productions, Inc. pp. 221. ISBN 0-9711868-0-4. Category:Three Stooges films